Ad world's item numbers

Creative hands at advertising agencies often talk about how the "suits" (i.e. marketing executives) encourage awards-only advertising. Here's how a top 10 agency has institutionalised the process. It has a rating system, called seven-plus, to gauge the "creative quotient" of every piece of work that comes out of the system globally. Teams that have a few seven-plus campaigns to their credit are assigned the sole task of doing "item numbers" - that is, produce ads for advertisers that may not be its clients but have the potential to add to its medals tally at various functions.